Fyre Festival documentary being planned

A multi-part documentary is in the pipeline telling the story of the total shitstorm that was the Fyre Festival, the supposedly luxurious music event in the Bahamas that collapsed just as ticket-buyers were arriving.

As much previously reported, marketing for the Fyre Festival – founded by Ja Rule and Billy McFarland – promised a luxury festival experience, but as people arrived on the island hosting the event it was clear management hadn’t put in place the infrastructure required for even a basic event. The company behind the festival, and a talent-booking app it was set up to promote, subsequently fell apart.

A stack of litigation has since piled up in relation to the debacle, with pissed off ticket-buyers, suppliers and financial backers all suing Ja Rule, McFarland and the Fyre companies. McFarland also faces criminal charges of fraud.

The documentary is being made by a New York film company called The Cinemart, and is also backed by media firm Mic and music industry trade title Billboard.

Its producers say that “the docu-series will use thousands of emails from Fyre staff, material from attendees on the ground, news articles and investigative journalism to explore the fiasco as a cautionary tale for a status-obsessed generation”.